I was born with the name
of William Kettig Irvine on July 12, 1969. I was named
after my maternal grandfather, William Henry Kettig Jr.
My mother and father always said that they wanted to put the
name Henry on my birth certificate, but reluctantly, did not.
In June of 1994, before I left for a tour in Korea, I petitioned
the court, with the help of my cousin, Anne Carson Irvine (a
lawyer), and had my name legally (and finally) changed to William
Henry Kettig Irvine. This was a very important stage in
my life and also helped me retrieve my just identity.

When I
was about 10 years old and in fourth grade, I was trying to
make a statement by physically writing my name as Henry Irvine
on all of my papers. This was some what of a surprise
to my teacher, Mrs. Harvey, so she made inquiries to my parents
as to my sudden "identity crisis." They told her that
I was trying to find my true identity about my name and thus
the confusion of life as child was started.

WILLIAM, born in Mobile, AL., 12th July, 1969, the 2nd child
of Samuel Oliver Starke Irvine and Sallie Anne Kettig. William
is a graduate of Christ the King School, Daphne, AL. in
1983. He then attended Fairhope High School in Fairhope,
AL and graduated in 1987. After High school he attended
the University of Montevallo, Montevallo, AL in 1987
and 1988. After realizing that college at this point
was not the right choice, and due to poor grades, he came
home for a life of hard labor and more discipline.
After working for Jubilee Landscape in Daphne Alabama,
from 1988 to 1990, the life of a landscaper was still not
the life-long goal to be had. He joined the United
States Air Force in September 1990 and flew off to San Antonio
Texas for Basic Military Training.

The
military life was now somewhere that he felt at home.
For once, discipline was sought and found in the Air Force.
William moved around with the Air Force seeing the world.
In November 1990, after graduating from Basic, he moved
to Sheppard AFB, Witchita Falls, Texas, until February,
1991 for Technical Training. In February 1991, permanent
change of station to Castle Air Force Base, Merced, California.
During a 3-1/2 year tour, he went temporary duty (TDY) to
places like, Diego Garcia, July to November, 1991; Kadena
AB, Okinawa, Japan, December 1991; a brief stay back at
Castle to improve on skills as a Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
Specialist. In December 1992, he went to Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia for his first tour in "the Desert". This
was at the end of the Persian Gulf war and he was witness
to planes leaving the runway on their way to Baghdad, Iraq,
for several bombing missions. This was an exciting time
to say the least --- also a frightening one. After
102 days of duty in Saudi, he returned home to California
in April 1993 where he endured more upgrade training in
his field and became a 5 level Technician in Heating, Ventilation,
Air Conditioning and Refrigeration. In October 1993,
he returned to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where he worked in Eskan
Village, the living quarters area for more than 20,000 US
Air Force and Army personnel.

On
January 31, 1994, William returned home from Saudi a seasoned
veteran of "Desert Storm/Shield" and remained in California
until June 1994. In June 1994, he received orders
for Osan AB, South Korea, this was his home for 1 year.
While in Korea, the North Koreans were in conflict with
the US over nuclear arms and inspection of facilities that
housed such weapons. Another trying time in military
history, the North Koreans would not allow inspection of
their facilities and the US was on the defensive.
During this time, an Army helicopter crashed landed north
of the DMZ and the occupants were all taken hostage.
Former President Jimmy Carter came to Korea for the negotiations.
After approximately three weeks, the hostages were released.
Let me say that the tension felt throughout Korea at this
point was very intense.

On
June 24, 1995, William boarded the "Freedom Bird" and departed
Korea for his new home at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery
Alabama. He spent the next three weeks in Daphne Alabama
on well-needed leave with his family and friends.
In July 1995, he reported to Maxwell AFB to start his new
job. He worked as a HVAC/R technician in Zone 1 until
1998 when he became to new "guru" of the Energy Management
Control Systems (EMCS) shop. In this shop, he was
able to learn the vast skills of an EMCS operator and programmer.
Working with computers was the calling he was looking for
in life. He took charge of the operations, monitoring,
programming and upkeep of over $250K of equipment while
also improving the base's $13 million energy bill.

After
attending a series of schools to include, University of
Montevallo, 1987-88; Faulkner State Jr College, Fairhope
AL, 1988-89; University of Maryland, Osan AB, Korea, 1994-95;
Community College of the Air Force, 1990-1996, earning an
Associate of Arts degree in Mechanical and Electrical Technology;
Central Texas College, 1995, Osan AB, Korea; finally, Troy
State University, Montgomery Alabama, 1997 - June 2001,
earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration
with a concentration in Computer Information Systems (CIS).

In
August 2001, after graduating from Troy State University
in Montgomery, he was hand picked by his Squadron Commander
to become the Base Utility Manager. In this new role,
he is in charge of billing and certification of Maxwell
AFB/Gunter Annex' Utility Management program. This
program consists of approx. $13.6M consumed annually by
base customers in Electrical Power, Natural Gas, and Potable
Water. Hoping to improve the way billing is handled,
his new venture will prove to be a worthy challenge and
an overall beneficial experience.

A series of hobbies ensued over his life from collecting
baseball cards as a youngster of which he has a collection
of more than 30,000 to learning web design and basic programming
in his early to late 20's. This web was created from
information gathered by his late great uncle Dr. Adrian
Irvine who spent most of his life writing about his family
and gaining knowledge of the past. William received
Adrian's notes around 1995 and the original purpose was
to add all of the information into a common database in
the World Family Tree. Soon after this project started,
he researched the Internet and found out that more people
than not, searched the web to find their roots, thus, the
Irvine Clan web site was created. The Irvine Clan
site has been in existence since 1998 and receives email
from inquisitive relatives or other genealogy researchers
world-wide.

On
August 23, 2003, William married Courtenay Michelle Frew
of Atlanta, GA. Courtenay is the daughter of Charles
and Reta Frew of Atlanta, GA. The couple was married
in Atlanta at Eastminster Presbyterian Church with the reception
to follow at The Pavilion in Buckhead.